Hussein Lootah receives UN under-secretary general

He made the remarks while receiving Dr. Anna Tibaijuka, Under-Secretary General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the UN-HABITAT (UN Human Settlements Programme), who paid a visit to him at his office on Sunday. She was accompanied by Rolf Wichmann, Chief, Office of the Executive Director, and Abdalla Abbas, Acting Director of UN Habitat Geneva Office.

They discussed ways of boosting existing cooperation between the UN Habitat and Dubai Municipality particularly with regard to the successful conduct of the sixth cycle of Dubai International Award for Human Settlements to Improve the Living Environment (DIABP).

Lootah noted that the biennial award, which recognises best practices world-wide that contribute towards bettering living conditions and environment, will be distributed to ten winners in November 2006. The municipality, along with UN-Habitat and other international partners, is currently receiving submissions for the award which will be later reviewed by a Technical Advisory Committee and an International Jury consisting of experts and academicians to chose the ten winners.

Tibaijuka congratulated Lootah on being appointed as the Acting Director General of Dubai Municipality, noting that the UN-HABITAT is looking forward to reinforcing the effective relationship with the municipality in various fields especially those related to the work of Habitat.

The meeting was also attended by Obeid Salim Al Shamsi, Assistant Director General of Dubai Municipality for Administrative and General Services Affairs.

It has to be noted that the Municipality and the UN-Habitat will jointly host an international conference in Dubai in November 2006 to discuss transfer of best practices for the attainment of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of the United Nations. The conference, expected to be attended by some 120 mayors of cities as well as officials from governments, local authorities, community based organizations and the private sector from around the world, is aimed at assessing the experience of compiling best practices over the last ten years and formulate an effective strategy for transferring best practices aimed at achieving a positive impact on the living environment including the attainment of MDGs.